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China has denied Philippine allegations that its coast guard deliberately obstructed a medical evacuation by the Philippine Coast Guard at the disputed Ayungin Shoal in the South China Sea, saying its vessel acted legitimately and eventually allowed the evacuation to proceed on humanitarian grounds. According to The Manila Times, the October 8 incident involved China Coast Guard vessel 5306 using a water cannon on a Philippine Coast Guard ship conducting a medical evacuation at the shoal, delaying the mission by nearly 10 hours. China's response: "legitimate and reasonable measures" In a statement on Friday, China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning rejected the obstruction claim and asserted that it was the Philippine vessel...

Hurricane Isaias, now downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone, has killed at least four people and left hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses without power across Florida, Alabama and western Georgia, authorities said Saturday. Death toll and damage Two people were killed in Alabama, Governor Kay Ivey said Saturday, and two more died in Escambia County, Florida, according to the county sheriff's office. In Florida, one death came late Friday night after a large tree fell on a home, pinning the victim underneath; another person was found deceased in a closed garage where a generator was running, while four other family members were hospitalised for non-life-threatening treatment. No victims were publicly identified. Power and...

Contract health employees in Andhra Pradesh have decided to pause their ongoing strike following discussions with government officials, and will resume duties on October 11. Strike began over pay and regularisation demands The A.P. Medical and Health Contract Employees' Joint Action Committee had called for a boycott of duties from October 6, after its demands for regularisation of services and payment of gross salary went unmet despite several rounds of discussions with the government. The state's health department had earlier agreed to some non-financial requests, including ex gratia for families of contract staff who died in the line of duty during the pandemic and radiation leave for radiographers. But since the government...

Security forces recovered a major stockpile of arms, ammunition and explosives from a forested area of north Kashmir's Sopore on Saturday, in what police described as a significant counter-terrorism breakthrough. The recovery was made during a joint cordon-and-search operation by Sopore Police, personnel of 22 Rashtriya Rifles and 179 Battalion of the CRPF in the Mukaam Cherhar forest area of Sopore township in Baramulla district, acting on specific intelligence inputs. Hidden barrel under a boulder During the search, personnel found a blue barrel and a bag concealed beneath a massive boulder. A bomb disposal squad was rushed to the site to safely secure the suspected explosives before the items were taken into custody under legal...

A 45-year-old man shot and killed eight people at a home in Erie, Pennsylvania, on Friday evening before dying of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said on Saturday, in one of the deadliest mass shootings in the United States this year. The victims included seven relatives of the gunman and a family friend, Erie Police Chief Rick Lorah said at a Saturday press conference. Among the dead were a woman who was eight months pregnant, a five-year-old boy and a one-year-old girl; the other victims were men and women ranging in age from 19 to 51. What happened According to investigators, video and audio evidence showed two distressed women arriving at the residence on Perry Street and pounding on the door shortly before...

India will host the World Landslide Forum for the first time this November, with the seventh edition of the global gathering scheduled from November 23 to 27 at Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham in Faridabad, in the Delhi-NCR region. The announcement marks a milestone for the country, which becomes the fifth nation to stage the prestigious event. Organised under the aegis of the International Consortium on Landslides (ICL) in collaboration with UNESCO and other international bodies, the World Landslide Forum is a triennial event that has previously been held in Tokyo, Rome, Beijing, Ljubljana, Kyoto and Florence. The Faridabad edition is expected to draw scientists, engineers, practitioners and policymakers from around the world for...

Riyadh: US President Donald Trump has signalled that the United States may assist a Saudi response after a missile strike hit Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport on Saturday — the third attack on the airport this week. Two regional officials confirmed to The Associated Press that the airport had come under attack again, with one saying the facility was evacuated and the other saying air traffic had been halted. What happened Saudi Arabia's civil aviation authority, GACA, confirmed the attack in a statement, saying operations were temporarily suspended and that "a number of injuries" were being assessed. A diplomatic source told Agence France-Presse that a missile struck a passenger terminal at around 3 pm local time, injuring...

New Delhi: India has rejected the United Nations Human Rights Office's concerns over mass detentions in the capital during Saturday's protests as misplaced and an "unwarranted interference in the internal affairs" of the country. The UN Human Rights Office had expressed concern over the detention of demonstrators, protest leaders, members of civil society organisations, lawyers and journalists in Delhi during protests organised by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), and called for the immediate and unconditional release of those arbitrarily detained. What the UN office said UN Human Rights spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan called on Indian authorities to respect and fulfil the right to peaceful assembly, saying restrictions on peaceful...

The Indian Navy will formally commission its third Anti-Submarine Warfare Shallow Water Craft (ASW-SWC), Mangrol, at the Naval Dockyard in Mumbai on Monday, October 12, 2026, adding a new indigenous coastal submarine hunter to the fleet. The commissioning ceremony will be presided over by Vice Admiral Sanjay Vatsayan, the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Western Naval Command, the Navy said. Senior naval and defence officials, representatives of the Ministry of Defence and shipbuilder Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL), veterans and representatives of Indian weapons and sensor manufacturers are expected to attend. A Make-in-India coastal hunter Mangrol has been built by CSL in Kochi with more than 80 per cent indigenous content...

The Supreme Court has fixed a special hearing on Sunday (October 11) on a contempt petition challenging the blanket shutdown of public transport, rail and metro services in Delhi, as authorities tightened restrictions to deter a protest demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. The petition contests the sweeping closure of transit corridors and metro stations designed to stop demonstrators converging in the national capital over the Cockroach Janta Party's (CJP) planned demonstration at Jantar Mantar and the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Restrictions on Saturday The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation on Saturday extended the closure of entry and exit gates at 45...

US President Donald Trump on Saturday said Ukraine should replace Volodymyr Zelenskyy with a leader who can strike a deal to end the war with Russia, escalating a rift between Washington and Kyiv that has deepened over America's new diesel agreement with Moscow. Speaking to reporters as he left the White House on Saturday afternoon, Trump said he told Zelenskyy not to target Russian energy facilities. "You can do whatever you want to Russia, don't hit the refineries, because that's a world problem," Trump said, adding that he had suggested Ukraine "get a new leader who can make a deal" because Zelenskyy "for some reason never does." The diesel deal The remarks came a day after Trump announced that Russia would immediately supply more...

Indian lawyer Vijay Aggarwal, who has represented fugitive businessman Mehul Choksi in fraud and money laundering proceedings, has been charged with rape and sexual assault in the United Kingdom, it emerged after a court hearing in London on Friday. The Crown Prosecution Service referenced the new charges against the 57-year-old, along with a charge of arranging or facilitating the travel of another person with a view to exploitation. Aggarwal is already behind bars in London on sexual assault charges. Three accused, one pre-trial hearing Aggarwal's assistant Manpreet Kaur, 41, who is also in a London prison, faces a similar charge. A third accused, Hara Tibrewala, appeared before Westminster Magistrates' Court on Friday charged with...

A Paris court on Friday sentenced 29-year-old Indian national Rohan Rane to 20 years in prison for heading an international online network that coerced children — many of them minors — into producing sexual and violent videos. The verdict, delivered after a five-day trial held largely behind closed doors before a special criminal court, marks one of the heaviest sentences handed down in France for online child exploitation. Prosecutors had sought a 30-year term. A network spanning three countries The court heard that Rane led a masculinist group known as "CVLT" that became active on the Discord platform ahead of the Covid-19 pandemic. The network targeted vulnerable children in the United States, Britain and Canada, luring them...

A loud blast at Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport on Saturday prompted evacuations and threw air traffic to the Saudi capital into disarray, with more than a dozen ambulances seen rushing to the facility and travellers evacuated from parts of the airport. Flight tracking data showed all flights to Riyadh being diverted or cancelled, and the airport urged passengers to contact their airlines directly and check their flight status before heading there. Airlines cancel services Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways cancelled multiple flights between their respective hubs and Riyadh, with some cancellations extending into Monday. The incident came just days before Riyadh is due to host major energy and investment conferences...

The Opposition INDIA bloc on Saturday announced a mega protest march in Delhi on Monday, October 12, deepening its confrontation with the government over the handling of the ongoing agitation against the Chief Election Commissioner and the voter-roll revision process. The announcement came hours after Delhi Police detained thousands of people during a massive crackdown on a youth-led rally called by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) at Jantar Mantar, including four former chief ministers and several senior opposition leaders. Protest plan for Monday Congress general secretary K.C. Venugopal announced the October 12 march, saying the Opposition would keep up its agitation until the electoral process was made free and fair. The ongoing...

Ladakh has flagged off India's first high-altitude wildlife safari, opening a new chapter for regulated wildlife tourism in the Union Territory. The safari was launched this week during the Wildlife Week 2026 celebrations at the Choglamsar Protected Forest in Leh by Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena. Six open-back vehicles, three routes to start Six specially designed open-back safari vehicles will initially operate across Rumbak, Shang and Uley — areas known for frequent snow leopard sightings. The initiative is being run by the Snow Leopard and High-Altitude Nature Conservation (SHAN) Society in collaboration with the Union Territory's Department of Forest, Ecology and Environment. Trained local drivers and wildlife guides will...

Russia has provided Iran with missiles, allowing Tehran to replenish its arsenals amid uncertainty over renewed US strikes, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing Western officials familiar with the matter. According to the report, carried by Haaretz, Iran has maintained its missile and drone production facilities despite months of US and Israeli airstrikes, and retains the ability to manufacture weapons. One official said Iran still holds substantial stocks of ballistic missiles and some anti-ship weapons and can rapidly produce more. The finding corroborates a separate Western intelligence assessment made in June, the report says. Russia's Defense Ministry did not respond to Bloomberg's request for comment, and the White House and the...

At least 28 people were killed when a passenger bus collided head-on with a timber truck and burst into flames on a highway in eastern Tanzania early on Friday, a fire and rescue official said. The crash occurred at Mkambarani on the Morogoro-Dar es Salaam highway, according to Joseph Mwasabeja, the acting commander of the Morogoro regional fire and rescue force. The bus was travelling from Dar es Salaam to Mbeya when the collision happened, the Associated Press reported. Twenty-seven of the victims were bus passengers, while the other victim was travelling in the truck, according to Tanzania's The Citizen. Mwasabeja said the truck was heading from Iringa toward Dar es Salaam and was attempting to overtake other vehicles when it...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has conveyed Iran's conditions for ending the US-Iran war to US President Donald Trump, the Kremlin said on Saturday, introducing a potential diplomatic channel into a conflict that has now run for months. "In coordination with the president of Iran, Putin conveyed to Trump the Iranian side's view on a possible resolution of the conflict," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to Russian media outlets, as reported in Al Jazeera's live coverage of the war on Saturday. The diplomatic opening The development comes a day after Trump announced an agreement with Putin allowing Russia to export more than one million tonnes of diesel in the coming months despite US sanctions — an energy deal reached...

Israeli warplanes and artillery shelled multiple areas of southern Lebanon on Saturday, October 10, in strikes that came despite a United States-brokered framework agreement reached between Beirut and Tel Aviv in June, according to Lebanon's state-run National News Agency. Lebanese media reported that Israeli jets raided the area between the towns of Nabatieh al-Fawqa and Kfar Tebnit in the Nabatieh governorate. Artillery fire also targeted the outskirts of Haddatha and Baraachit, as well as the Wadi al-Saluki and Wadi al-Hujair valleys. The outskirts of Maifadoun and Kfar Tebnit came under intense bombardment, with further shelling directed at Haddatha in the Bint Jbeil district. Israeli drones were additionally seen flying at low...